Tag Archives: paleo diet

Ben Affleck was a brief topic of conversation the other night when Jennifer Lopez stopped by the Bravo TV Clubhouse to chat it up with host, Andy Cohen. Among the dish was an assertion by J Lo that she helped Ben with his fashion choices during their two year relationship saying, “I did kind of like say, ‘you need to be, you know – You’re a movie star! You should wear a suit. . . ‘

Oh, Ben is going to wear a suit alright, a BAT SUIT! And by the look of some recently leaked photos, he’s going to fill it out nicely. My goodness. Is it warm in here?

When director, Zack Snyder, made the announcement that Ben Affleck would play the iconic role in the upcoming Superman sequel, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, the interwebs wasted no time declaring that the actor best known for roles in Armageddon, Good Will Hunting, and Argo, had no business playing a super hero.

Ben shrugged off the bat-hate and then went out and just got ripped, you guys. Though no details have been released about his prep for the movie, we do know that he’s working with celebrity nutritionist and natural bodybuilder, Rehan Jalali, who also helped him get cut and chiseled for the 2010 movie, The Town.

According to Jalali, Ben’s previous diet consisted of six to seven small meals per day with a focus on lean protein (wild salmon) carbs (sweet potatoes), plus essential fats (almonds). In a Twitter Q&A session this spring, Jalali would only say, “the training is very focused and intense. We’re going for a real-life super hero look.”

Want to know which foods were hot this past year and what to expect for 2014? Foodily, the world’s largest social recipe network, keeps tabs on what visitors have been searching for over the years. Since 2011 the site has seen “the decline of red meat and the increase of healthy eating related searches,” says Foodily co-founder Hilary Mickell.

What else is on tap for 2014? Here are the top 10 trendiest, most searched for foods in 2013. BONUS: We’ve included our favorite recipes so you can be sure to fit them in this year!

Top 10 in 2013:

1. Chicken. This standard red meat alternative can get a little plain sometimes, but not with this Apple and Herb Dutch Oven-Roasted Chicken! Check out our tips to use the leftovers for equally as awesome meals for the rest of the week.

Eating like our ancestors, eating like a caveman, eating like hunter-gatherers – no matter how you phrase it, it all comes down to the same thing: the paleo diet.

The premise of the diet is to mimic the ancient humans. This is done by removing products of modern agriculture (wheat, legumes, and dairy). Instead, paleo dieters eat meals full of meat, nuts, and vegetables.

According to author Michael Pollan, however, that diet isn’t what our ancient ancestors would have eaten. On an episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, he said, “I don’t think we really understand…well the proportions in the ancient diet. Most people who tell you with great confidence that this is what our ancestors ate-I think they’re kind of blowing smoke.”

We asked Mary Hartley, R.D. what her take on the paleo diet was, and she agrees with Pollan. “Over the last several years, researchers have learned more about early hominid diets. Early hominids from forested areas ate the fruit and tree nuts, but ancients for the savanna ate the grasses and sedges that grew there. (Millions of years later, those grasses would become domesticated cereal crops).”

Looking for a new favorite recipe? If you don’t already know the best secret in recipe searching, let me fill you in: Pinterest is the way to go.

The visual search function makes it easier to determine which recipe is the right one for you, and the diversity of recipes Pinterest displays is pretty amazing. I personally enjoy using the site, mostly because my cooking experiments don’t always turn out the way they should, and it’s nice to see what the end result was supposed to be.

Pinterest has made their search function even better with the addition of new search filters: Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten free, Paleo, and Indulge Me.

Here’s how it works:

By typing in something as simple as “dinner recipes,” and selecting the Vegetarian filter, you find recipes like vegetarian chili, baked ziti, and mushroom burgers.

Indulge Me appears to be a filter designed for extra indulgent desserts that include chocolate, peanut butter, caramel, and the like. (Count us in!)

To use the filters, you type in a name of a dish or ingredients you have and simply select which works for you.

Pinterest also says their recipe pins will include cook times, ingredients, and servings.

Though only available online, the new search features should be available on its mobile site soon.

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by the thought of what to feed your brood or found yourself schlepping to the grocery store three times a week because you didn’t have the organizational skills to plan for more than one or two meals in advance, let Kelly Seaton and the staff of Once A Month Meals lend a hand.

The site offers a low cost membership program that provides: Access to serving size customizable recipe cards, freezer directions, organized grocery lists, step by step cooking day instructions, and printable labels. Everything you need to cook a month worth of meals in one day. A video on the site explains the membership process.

Not sure if you want to commit to a membership but still want to peruse a variety of healthy recipes for free? You can do that too. Kelly tells us about a few of her favorite recipes below, but I’m jotting this one down for breakfast next week: Whole Grain Banana Pecan Muffins. Nom-nom!

More from Kelly at Once a Month Meals –

Why did you start your food blog? Once A Month Meals started back in 2009 as a way to share information on how freezer cooking can help people get back into the kitchen creating meals they’ll love for better health and to ease their budgets.

How would you describe your approach to eating/health? Once A Month Meals helps you to stay on track toward healthy eating. With seven different menu types, we focus on getting quality and diverse meals into your plan. We like to focus on seasonal ingredients when they are at their peak. Our Paleo and Diet menus help those on more strict eating paths to stay on track and not feel the need to indulge during a time-crunch.

Have you always had an interest in healthy food or did it come later in life? Our writers have always had an interest in food. Over the years, our attention has grown more focused on getting the right foods for our needs. And by healing with food instead of drugs.

Are you having a caveman holiday? Meaning, are you on the paleo diet and plan to stick to it through Christmas? Don’t fear. You can do it without missing out on all the favorite flavors of the season.

The task of eating on the paleo diet may seem daunting when it comes to traditional holiday fare. This is especially true given some of the big no-nos on the diet are grains, flour, dairy, and refined sugar. But really, it can be done and by the looks of the recipes, it doesn’t look like you’ll be missing much.

The staples of a paleo diet are meats, eggs, fish, vegetables, fruits, and nuts and seeds. So if you were to look at a traditional holiday meal, the main course is often meat. Whether it be a turkey, a roast, or a ham, this part isn’t too tricky. Many recipes call for the meat to be cooked with savory herbs and spices and a few tweaks like honey and cider vinegar. Nothing too difficult.

When it comes to sides, again, vegetables are approved here. If you’re wanting creamy potatoes or marshmallows in the sweet potatoes, you might run into some challenges, but nothing that will sacrifice flavor. Many use almond milk or coconut to cream up the potato dishes, and good green vegetables never need much to taste great in the first place. (more…)

When news broke last week of an unearthed smattering of parchment containing obese President William Howard Taft’s daily diet regimen, Mary Hartley, RD was the first person I thought of. Our resident nutrition expert with the fiery attitude would surely have a wicked take on Big Billy’s nutrition, and she didn’t disappoint.

When asked if diet and nutrition had changed a great deal since Taft’s presidency 100 years ago, she replied, “Not much. And it pisses me off!”

Now why would Mary be pissed off at Taft’s diet? First, I’ll break down exactly what he was eating.

Breakfast: gluten biscuits and lean meat

Lunch: lean meat, butterless veggies, and unsweetened fruit

Dinner: plain salad, lean meat or fish, more flavorless fruits and veggies, and one more dusty gluten biscuit

The Paleo Diet will now challenge The Atkins Diet for the title of “Ultimate Low-Carb Diet.” The Atkins Diet was released to the public in 1958, and continues to be popular amongst dieters thanks to the New Atkins for a New You, an update to the weight loss plan released in 2010.The Paleo Diet is even older—about 2.5 million years older—but is enjoying a modern-day renaissance with seemingly unmatched popularity.

The lack of carbs is where these two diets stop sharing similarities. Atkins is relatively liberal in food selection, allowing for bacon, cheese, seafood, meat, butter, olive oil and cream. Paleo, on the other hand, is extremely restrictive, with dieters limited to the types of foods only our nomadic ancestors would eat. Red meat, chicken, eggs, fish, fruit and vegetables, and nuts—albeit not peanuts or cashews— are allowed, but grains, beans, dairy, sugar, salt, and flour are all off limits.

Price

You can pick up the Paleo Diet for $14.95 on Amazon, while the newest Atkins book will set you back a bit more, at $16.99. Both have companion cookbooks which you can buy at your discretion, and they’re each $19.99. The Atkins website features a carb-counting tool, scientific evidence, and a recipe guide, not to mention many other tools and features. Paleo’s site has detailed nutritional analysis, published research, and a breakdown of why it’s good to eat like a neanderthal. And of course, both diets feature helpful mobile apps.

Phases

The weight loss plans in each of the books are presented quite differently. The Atkins Diet is more structured, with four phases to conquer individually—Induction, Ongoing Weight Loss, Pre-Maintenance and Lifetime Maintenance—while the Paleo Diet spells out what you can and cannot eat, offers a meal plan, and reads more like a history book. (more…)

When you hear Atkins, you probably immediately think “low-carb diet.” Most of us recall that name being synonymous with the fad of high-protein diets in the early 2000s. Now, the Atkins brand is resurfacing with a refreshed image and an attempt to break free of its previously held stereotypes.

A recent article in Advertising Age discussed the shifts in power at the diet food company and spoke with the current Chief Marketing Officer, Scott Parker. In addition to offering free online tools and selling Atkins brand foods in the grocery stores, Atkins is working to rework their image. Parker told Advertising Age that the company went off track several years ago and many lost sight of what the plan was really about.

“The diet fundamentally teaches you to eat a balanced menu, it never did tell you to eat nothing but bacon and eggs,” he said. “But that is what word-of-mouth became and people literally were doing their own makeshift diet and they didn’t have a very good experience because they didn’t do it correctly.”

They’ll be working hard to get their name out there, as the report stated Atkins Nutritionals, which did not return comment in time for publication, will be increasing their spending by 50 percent this year. This rebranding will take place as many similar diets have really hit the mainstream and one can assume Atkins wants to get a piece of that consumer pie. (more…)

“I wish Paleo wasn’t nicknamed The Caveman Diet.” I once said this to my bosses, Bill Staley and Hayley Mason, authors of Make it Paleo, Gather, and The 30 Day Guide to Paleo Cooking. Hayley replied, “I wish it wasn’t called Paleo.”

Believe it or not, Paleo isn’t a lifestyle where you hunt your own food and cook it over a campfire. Instead, it’s focused on eating real food, such as meat, fish, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Processed foods, including grain and sugar, and foods that are difficult to digest, such as cultured dairy and legumes, are eliminated. Beyond losing weight, Paleo helps regulate blood sugar (did you know a piece of bread raises your blood sugar more than a tablespoon of white sugar?) and burns fat, rather than sugar, as an energy source.

If you’re considering a Paleo diet, here are a few guidelines to help you get started: (more…)

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